Post date: Mar 09, 2009 8:26:7 AM
I recently got a few bad reviews on the iTunes App Store, and wanted to talk a bit about them.
First, a quick summery - To this date MySongbook got 24 reviews around the world: 14 five stars, 6 four stars, one three stars, and 3 one star. Now, I have no problem with bad reviews, as long as I can learn something from them, and I definitely learned a few things of these one star reviews. What does annoy me is that none of those reviewers, who took the time to write these reviews, have tried to contact me for support. I find it funny that someone complains about an issue, and even make a remark about the cost of the app, but still don't care enough to try to resolve that issue in any way. It would have been okay if there was some way I could contact those reviewers, but that information simply isn't available to me and so I resort to this news post.
So what were these reviews that got me so annoyed that I had to vent about them on this site?
Pokeraddict321 started with the very promising title "I luv this but one problem!", that got me thinking - you love this yet you think it deserves one star? hmm... Now, the issue he was having was that the scrolling speed was too slow for him - since I made sure that the maximum scrolling speed would be faster than what anyone would ever need (unless you try to play a song like a chipmunk - so maybe I should crank the scrolling speed up a bit...), so I'm guessing he didn't noticed the slider at the bottom, which is something that a single email to me would have solved.
LatinJazzMan made the very funny remark "i would have been better off flushing the $2 down the toilet. That would have been entertaining.", which I'm sure would be entertaining - maybe I should make an app out of this idea, it could be the next iFart. What he actually complained about was that he couldn't find the songs he wanted to play, which is something that has little to do with my app, because I don't sell music sheets (If I were, the price would've been much higher), I sell an app for displaying chords that just makes it a bit easier for you to find them on the web. I thought that it was pretty clear that you can only find what's already out there on the web, but I guess I had to put on a disclaimer (which I now have - lesson learned).
Patrick_CGN wrote "Does not work. Search song is mega difficult. Saving does not work. Mieses App.", which if you haven't noticed is the bad translation I used (Google Translate is awesome!) for this review which was originally written in German - yes, I actually take the time to look at reviews from foreign countries. This is a clear case of someone who had troubles understanding how to use my app, yet didn't even considered contacting me for help. I have no idea what were the problems he ran into, because he didn't provided that much information in his review, but I'm sure I could've helped him in some way.
So what did I learn from these reviews? default scrolling speed should be faster, nothing is obvious (duh?), and when you feel like banging your head against the wall - write about it on the web.
UPDATE: I'm not sure if this post is the reason, but the review by "Pokeraddict321" was changed from one star to five stars, and is now very favorable of my app. If you (Pokeraddict321) are reading this, then thank you, and I'm glad that you've changed your mind and that now you do like my app.